A Fifth Dimension:Disambiguation
Disambiguation in A Fifth Dimension is the action taken to remedy a conflict that occurs when articles are written about two or more different subjects but have the same natural title. When to disambiguate Linking in A Fifth Dimension is achieved very simply, by placing brackets around a word that has a corresponding article. For example: :The Twilight Zone will produce: :The Twilight Zone That was easy, but which "The Twilight Zone" did you mean? Were you talking about the 2002 series, the original series, a comic title or the franchise as a whole? For each of these different article subjects, The Twilight Zone would be its natural title and yet each of the articles sharing the same exact name would be incredibly confusing. This is exactly the type of situation that requires disambiguation. See also: Naming conventions, for guidelines on naming pages to avoid any ambiguity. How to disambiguate Disambiguation is achieved in two ways: # Create a disambiguation page that lists links to all of the articles that are often referred to in the same way, but have different meanings. This is preferred if there are three or more topics associated with the same term. # Add disambiguation links at the top of an article (hatnotes), that refer the reader to other articles with similar titles or subjects. With each of the methods, one needs to judge which is appropriate based on the content and its intended use for each article involved. Disambiguation pages There are essentially two ways to establish a disambiguation page: by a disambiguation page or a primary topic page. Disambiguation page A disambiguation page is a non-article page placed at the location of an article that is ambiguous and may cause confusion. In the above example, this would be placed at the location of The Twilight Zone. The page would link to all articles that might be associated with the term. Again, using the same example, a disambiguation page for the term would have to include all of the subjects that are commonly referred to by use of the term The Twilight Zone. For example: The Twilight Zone may refer to: * The Twilight Zone (franchise) * * * * ... When creating a disambiguation page, you should include as a flagging template, which will display the following text: :"It's time to make a choice... :This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may want to change the link to point directly to the intended article." Primary topic page However, if there is one primary topic for the title, this more important subject can go on the natural title page. The primary topic would be the common understanding of the term when it is mentioned in casual use. For instance, when most people hear the term "gremlin" they tend to think of the English folkloric creature. On the other hand, a primatologist may first think of the Gremlin chimpanzee while an automotive historian may first think of the AMC Gremlin subcompact car from the 1970's. However, since most of us are neither automotive historians nor primatologists, it can be relatively safe to assume that the primary topic of "gremlin" would be a michievous creature of legend (Wikipedia thought so). In this case, the disambiguation page would not be at the natural title location, but instead at a separate page that is placed at (disambiguation). This page should be linked from the primary topic using the following template: , which reads: :This page is about . For other uses, see (disambiguation). For example: : wlil produce: Combined use Sometimes, while there is a primary topic article, there may be a secondary topic that is a close rival to the primary topic in terms of popularity or common use. In this case, you may want to list this secondary topic in a hatnote at the top of the article, along with a link to the natural title disambiguation page. In this case, you can use the following template: , which reads: :This page is about . For other uses, see [[]] or (disambiguation). For example: : will produce: : Disambiguation links For ''natural titles that do not have more than one other related subject article, you may want to avoid making an entire disambiguation page, especially if one can be considered the primary topic. In this case, you can create a hatnote at the top of a page, linking to the other use of that term. In this case, you can use the following template: , which reads: :This page is about . For other uses, see [[]]. For example: : wlil produce: Links to disambiguation pages Despite the creation of disambiguation pages, it is strongly recommended that articles link to the specific subject in question whenever possible, rather than linking to a disambiguation page. This means, for example, if you are talking specifically about , then link to it by using The Twilight Zone (Second Series) or instead of sending readers to The Twilight Zone (disambiguation). While this may cause the disambiguation page to become an orphan, this is acceptable. However, when disambiguation pages begin to amass, the high number of these pages could cause the to become overloaded with intentional orphans. So, although disambiguation orphans are technically fine, this will make it more and more difficult for editors and apprentice narrators to detect which orphans truly need helped. To remedy this, please try to remember to manually list the disambiguation page you create on Links to disambiguation pages. In addition to the manual list above, the following pages list all disambiguation pages: * Category:Disambiguation pages * * * * See also *